


Preserve your memories (They're all that's left you)

by GracefullySeven



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Black Hermione Granger, Gen, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood - Freeform, Obliviation, Portkeys, Pre-Relationship, Rainbow Plimpies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 18:31:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15779697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GracefullySeven/pseuds/GracefullySeven
Summary: Hermione never does something without having researched the subject extensively before hand. She hadn't found a scrap of evidence of successful Obliviation reversal beyond a small caliber erasure. She still Obliviated her parents of seventeen years of memories and an entire identity so as to protect them from Death Eaters. She has always known returning their memories would require a highly uncommon solution. Luckily, she has a friend who specializes in the uncommon to help her out.





	Preserve your memories (They're all that's left you)

_“While the Forgetfulness Charm is taught as part of the regular magical curriculum in Magical Britain, this is done in a purely theoretical fashion, since casting it requires a license as a registered Obliviator for the Ministry of Magic. While a mishap with the charm does not always imply in complete disaster, accidents or major Obliviations are often irreversible and are not very sensitive to treatment. Nobody has ever recorded a successful Obliviation reversal for anything greater than a little slip-up among Muggles or a teenager’s attempt to get out of a grounding.”_

Extracted from“Thoughts on remembering and forgetting with magical aid” by Ingrid Cress

Hermione is ready to travel alone. Harry is in St. Mungo's, recovering from magical exhaustion and temporary death, Neville is dealing with press and law-enforcement in his place. Ronald and Ginny are both grieving; Ron had moved in with George, Ginny was at home supporting her parents as they threw themselves into rebuilding the Burrow.

(She and Ron had decided not long after Fred's funeral that their relationship had never been very smooth to begin with, and that they would rather be good friends than an angry couple. Things had gotten a lot better after that).

Hermione is ready to travel alone, but wishes she didn’t need to, because these are her parents, darnit, and they won’t remember her. She would have liked to have some emotional support, even if it were only Ron’s teaspoon of emotional intelligence. Two days before she is set to go, Luna Lovegood Floo calls her apartment in London. The conversation is awkward; Luna was always much more Ginny’s friend than hers, and Hermione can’t think of much to say besides something about the war, and that is no good as a topic. They stumble though some speculation about how the wrackspurts are gearing up to be that morning, and if rain might put them off mischief when Luna looks her straight in the eye and says “Would it be alright if I came with you on your trip?”

Hermione feels a warm surge in her chest, and is smiling and saying ‘yes’ almost before Luna is done asking. Luna smiles back, and Hermione can’t help but notice how her blonde hair is framed in sea-green sparks and her voice echoes in the fireplace and chimney. The conversation goes more smoothly from then on, and the warm feeling stays all the way through a discussion about the likelihood of them spotting a Rainbow Plimpy in Australia.

They meet at the London International Portkey Concourse. Hermione is dressed in sensible jeans and runners, Luna in frayed blue jean dungarees and a pink scarf in her hair. Hermione’s head is full of doubts and second thoughts and her stomach is veritable swarm of butterflies. She tries to take comfort in Luna’s hug hello, and breathe through it all. Suddenly, Luna looks down at their cases in surprise and exclaims:

“But where is your luggage? Have the nargles taken it?”

Hermione is so nervous she startles as well, and nearly thinks, a little hysterically, that her suitcase has been taken by invisible creatures when remembers and says “Oh, no, it just got checked in, that’s all. It was only one suitcase, so they said it could go through right after us, instead of carrying it in our hands and having it bump into us during the journey. Would you like to check yours in as well?”

“Only one? But where have all the books gone, then? I thought we hadn’t found a proper reversal for the spell yet, are we going to leave them behind after all?” Luna looks about the lobby as if they might be hiding just behind a column. Hermione blushes and clears her throat, embarrassed all of a sudden.

“Well no, I haven’t left them behind…” She lowers her tone of voice. “It’s just I had already filled the case with pictures and letters and videotapes of… of before, and I didn’t have any more space left so I just…”And here she lifts her purple beaded handbag and opens it just a little so Luna can lean over and peek inside. “It’s got an Extension Charm on it, Undetectable unless you stick your arm in it, and it’s got all the books, and the equipment, and sunscreen and toothpaste and so on.... It’s the same one I used in seventh year.”Then her expression turns a little sheepish “I don’t suppose it’s actually allowed, to take all this much extra luggage, but they’ll never know, and I really *couldn’t* leave any of them behind!”

Luna smiles up at her, blue eyes serious “I think it’s very cleverly done, Hermione. Then her eyes twinkle a little mischievously. “Besides, now I understand why Harry said not to worry too much about the packing…!” By the time they have clasped hands, warm brown against milky-white, and taken firm hold of a glowing umbrella, Hermione just has time to notice that the butterfly-feeling in her stomach has gone before she feels a sharp jerk behind her navel and they are whisked away from London to faraway places.

**Author's Note:**

> This is unfinished and unrefined; I just put it up so I wouldn't lose track of it.  
> The title is a reference to Simon and Garfunkel's Bookend's Theme. It's short, sweet and very whimsical. I suggest giving it a listen, even if it doesn't fit the feel of the chapter, necessarily.


End file.
